A Swiss-based foundation, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), has inaugurated an agribusiness innovation clinic in Benue to improve food and nutrition security in staple foods.The launch which was held on Tuesday in Makurdi was entitled: “Strengthening Nutrition in Priority Staples (SNIPS)”.
Speaking at the event, the SNIPS Project Manager, Mrs Mercy Olorunfemi, said that the main goal of the strengthening nutrition project was to increase consumption of nutritious foods by smallholder farmers, their families and the wider population.
According to Olorunfemi, the SNIPS project will also strengthen cassava, maize, rice and orange-fleshed sweet potato value chain in Nigeria which provides more safe and nutritious foods to consumers.
Olorunfemi also said that more than 110 farmers had been given herbicides in four local government areas of Benue to increase the production of nutritious varieties of the target staples.
In his keynote address, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Benue, Mr Kester Kyenge, commended GAIN for its efforts to ensure food and nutrition security in the state.
Kyenge, represented by Mr Raphael Dau, said “ensuring food and nutrition security is one of the most pressing challenges for sustainable social and economic development in Nigeria”.
He promised that the state government would partner with GAIN by providing enabling environment for the project to succeed for the benefit of Benue people.
